Jim Walker was born in the little college town of Olivet, Illinois in 1929, to Earl and Mittie Walker. He was the last of seven children....one of five boys and two girls.In 1946 his father died, and just 16 months later his mother died, leaving him, at 18, to find a home with his oldest brother, Myron's, family. He worked in a shoe store and finished his first year of college at the University of Illinois Extension. During the summer of 1948 he worked on a hay baler to earn money for his second year of college. While his brother's family was visiting relatives in New York that summer, Jim hitch-hiked to Pasadena, California, to attend a church school and pursue his calling to be a minister.He worked in a machine shop on second shift in Pasadena, and took a full course of college during the daytime. This forced him to pay attention in class, because there was no time to study.His studies were interrupted by the Korean War in 1950. He became an Aviation Electrician in the Navy, and served on the USS Oriskany in the same squadron with Alan Shepherd, later to become one of the first astronauts.After the war, Jim worked for General Electric for 33 years, having completed the company's 3-year post-graduate course, "Manufacturing Training Program." Upon retirement, he finally was able to begin his ministerial career with Vermilion Grove Friends, the oldest continuously operating church in Vermilion County, Illinois. He has a wonderful wife, Norma, and three children, seven grandchildren, three step-grandchildren, and three great grandchildren.
